Michelle McNamara’s account of her “obsessive search” for the Golden State Killer was released almost two years after her death.
Michelle McNamara’s contributions to the search for the Golden State Killer, and the literary world, aren’t going unnoticed.
The late true crime writer’s husband, actor and comedian Patton Oswalt, shared a sweet message via Twitter on Wednesday as McNamara’s posthumously-published book, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, debuted at the top spot of the New York Times’ nonfiction bestsellers list.
"I hope you know, sweetie. I feel like you know," Oswalt captioned a photo of the list. "And I hope you know it when your work leads to his capture. #IllBeGoneInTheDark debuts at #1 on the @nytimes bestseller list. I’m so proud of you."
McNamara’s book details her self-described “obsessive search” for the serial rapist-turned-murderer known as the Golden State Killer, who terrorized Northern California from the mid-’70s to the mid-’80s. The true crime journalist, who also created the popular website TrueCrimeDiary.com, died in her sleep April 2016 from a combination of a previously undiagnosed heart condition and complications from prescribed medication.
Oswalt carried on his late wife’s work after her death, helping to finish the book and releasing it to critical acclaim last week. On its release date, Oswalt took a copy of the book to McNamara's grave marker, sharing a photo of the touching moment on Twitter.
"You did it, baby," he wrote. "The book is excellent, the writing brilliant. You tried to bring kindness to chaos, which was your way."
Oswalt and McNamara shared an 8-year-old daughter, Alice. In November, the AP Bio star got remarried to actress Meredith Salenger.
"Because she is such a life force, it almost feels like she was put here to see if her level of life force could revive this death vibe that I was living in and pull me out of it," Oswalt told NPR last fall of finding love again. "And she did. She did, seemingly effortlessly."
See more on the actor and comedian’s candid comments about life after his wife’s death in the video below.
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